A new thin film approach to increasing the gain and sensitivity of current and future fast particle detectors is hypothesized. An increased ion induced secondary electron yield at the first surface of the detector while retaining high timing accuracy will make such detectors suitable replacement for MCP detectors in biological applications such as electron or ion microscopies and time of flight mass spectrometers. Moreover, the detector may be sensitive to the energy or momentum of the incoming ion. Such information could simplify MALDI or electrospray MS spectra containing highly charged molecular ions.